The Internment of Japanese Americans in United States History by David K. Fremon Page B
Authors: David K. Fremon
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million, between 1900 and 1940. Still, laws further diminished Japanese-American rights. The Cable Act of 1922 ruled that Asian women married to American citizens were not eligible for United States citizenship. Women who married “aliens ineligible for United States citizenship” would lose their own citizenship. Two years later, a new immigration act excluded “aliens ineligible for citizenship.” This, of course, meant the Issei.
Restrictive immigration laws, in addition to the fact that many Japanese-American families were small, kept the population of Issei and Nisei low. In 1940, Japanese accounted for less than one tenth of one percent of the United States population. In California, where most lived, they made up less than 2 percent of the population. By numbers, they were no threat to their neighbors.
But Japan, their ancestral homeland, was a threat to world peace. In the 1930s, the Japanese empire invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Further conquests appeared inevitable. Would the Japanese ever stop their conquests? Would the Issei and Nisei living in the United States come to the aid of Japan?
As early as 1937, a Nisei college student at the University of California pondered his fate if war broke out between Japan and the United States. “Our properties would be confiscated and most likely [we would be] herded into prison camps,” he predicted. 6 His words were prophetic.
Chapter 5
THEY WERE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Image Credit: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
This map shows the locations of the ten permanent relocation centers set up for Japanese Americans. Many of these camps were located in areas with extreme weather conditions.
Once again, the Issei and Nisei traveled. Now they were going to camps called relocation centers.
These evacuation centers were never meant to be long-term facilities. They were temporary detention sites that housed internees until more permanent camps could be built. Most evacuation centers were located near cities that formerly had significant Japanese-American populations. The relocation centers were built near mountains, sand, and sagebrush.
By isolating Issei and Nisei from other people, the government intended to minimize the chance of espionage by Japanese saboteurs. The isolation could also help avoid negative publicity that might come from the government holding innocent people as prisoners.
Yoshiko Uchida rode with her family in a rickety train to Utah. During the day, they passed by sites they had not seen for months—houses, trees, stores, white children. By night, they saw nothing. Guards ordered everyone to close their shades between dusk and dawn. The guards took no chances on Japanese saboteurs flashing secret messages in the dark.
At the Salt Lake City station, an old friend greeted Yoshiko. It was a fellow Nisei who voluntarily had evacuated to Utah several months earlier. The meeting made no sense. Her friend was free to do anything except return to the West Coast. Uchida could not even leave her train car. 1
Uchida’s train went to Delta, Utah. There the evacuees boarded buses that traveled into the middle of a desert. There, in land “dry as a bleached bone,” 2 lay the camp known as Topaz. Camp directors called it “the jewel of the desert.” 3
Topaz was one of the ten out-of-the-way relocation camps. The others were Manzanar and Tule Lake, in California; Minidoka, Idaho; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Granada, Colorado; Poston and Gila River, Arizona; and Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas. Manzanar had been in use as an evacuation center; all the others were newly built. In addition to these camps, there were also special internment camps where troublesome evacuees were held.
“All ten sites can only be called godforsaken,” wrote historian Dr. Roger Davis. “They were in places where nobody had lived before and no one has lived since.” 4 Tule Lake, Minidoka, and Heart Mountain were prone to severe winters. Temperatures would plunge to 30 degrees below
Restrictive immigration laws, in addition to the fact that many Japanese-American families were small, kept the population of Issei and Nisei low. In 1940, Japanese accounted for less than one tenth of one percent of the United States population. In California, where most lived, they made up less than 2 percent of the population. By numbers, they were no threat to their neighbors.
But Japan, their ancestral homeland, was a threat to world peace. In the 1930s, the Japanese empire invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria. Further conquests appeared inevitable. Would the Japanese ever stop their conquests? Would the Issei and Nisei living in the United States come to the aid of Japan?
As early as 1937, a Nisei college student at the University of California pondered his fate if war broke out between Japan and the United States. “Our properties would be confiscated and most likely [we would be] herded into prison camps,” he predicted. 6 His words were prophetic.
Chapter 5
THEY WERE CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Image Credit: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
This map shows the locations of the ten permanent relocation centers set up for Japanese Americans. Many of these camps were located in areas with extreme weather conditions.
Once again, the Issei and Nisei traveled. Now they were going to camps called relocation centers.
These evacuation centers were never meant to be long-term facilities. They were temporary detention sites that housed internees until more permanent camps could be built. Most evacuation centers were located near cities that formerly had significant Japanese-American populations. The relocation centers were built near mountains, sand, and sagebrush.
By isolating Issei and Nisei from other people, the government intended to minimize the chance of espionage by Japanese saboteurs. The isolation could also help avoid negative publicity that might come from the government holding innocent people as prisoners.
Yoshiko Uchida rode with her family in a rickety train to Utah. During the day, they passed by sites they had not seen for months—houses, trees, stores, white children. By night, they saw nothing. Guards ordered everyone to close their shades between dusk and dawn. The guards took no chances on Japanese saboteurs flashing secret messages in the dark.
At the Salt Lake City station, an old friend greeted Yoshiko. It was a fellow Nisei who voluntarily had evacuated to Utah several months earlier. The meeting made no sense. Her friend was free to do anything except return to the West Coast. Uchida could not even leave her train car. 1
Uchida’s train went to Delta, Utah. There the evacuees boarded buses that traveled into the middle of a desert. There, in land “dry as a bleached bone,” 2 lay the camp known as Topaz. Camp directors called it “the jewel of the desert.” 3
Topaz was one of the ten out-of-the-way relocation camps. The others were Manzanar and Tule Lake, in California; Minidoka, Idaho; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Granada, Colorado; Poston and Gila River, Arizona; and Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas. Manzanar had been in use as an evacuation center; all the others were newly built. In addition to these camps, there were also special internment camps where troublesome evacuees were held.
“All ten sites can only be called godforsaken,” wrote historian Dr. Roger Davis. “They were in places where nobody had lived before and no one has lived since.” 4 Tule Lake, Minidoka, and Heart Mountain were prone to severe winters. Temperatures would plunge to 30 degrees below
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